James Bowles, son of a wealthy London tobacco merchant and member of Maryland's Lower House of the Assembly, purchased a 2,000 acre tract that would become Sotterley Plantation. In 1703, he built the original two room house which today stands as a unique record of a method of construction called post-in-ground architecture, once common in the Tidewater regions.

Two years after the death of Squire Bowles in 1727, his young widow, Rebecca, married George Plater II. Over the years, the Plater family converted the simple residence into a charming 18th-century Mansion house, which they named after their ancestral home, Sotterley Hall, in Suffolk, England. It was under George Plater III, sixth governor of Maryland, that the house reached its distinctive form, which may have served as a model for other such homes in the region.

The design of the Chinese Chippendale staircase and the shell alcoves in the drawing room is attributed to Richard Boulton.  They are considered among the finest examples of 18th-century American woodwork.

• Sotterley in the 19th Century